Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9688 in Digital Music Album
• Released on: 2008-10-07
• Running time: 0 seconds

Customer Reviews

Nothing Has Changed, But Nothing's The Same

When David Byrne was the keynote speaker at Austin's South By Southwest Conference a couple of years ago, he did a presentation called "Record Companies, who needs them?". The point of his presentation was that this age of rampant digital file sharing presents challenges and opportunities for artists to reinvent the way they release their music, and record companies better figure out a different business model, or get left in the digital dust.

Well, as the saying goes, Mr. Byrne put his money where his mouth was, and released "Everything" digitally on his own imprint.

It's been phenomenally successful. As he predicted in his keynote address, he and Brian Eno have been putting about 80%, instead of 12 or 15% of the profits in their own pockets.

Byrne embarked on his current tour in support of the album a couple of weeks after its release. In doing so, he followed the second prong of his keynote address: After releasing the record, start making the big money on the road. Aside from undoubtedly being very lucrative, the tour has gotten nearly universal positive acclaim by critics and fans alike. I've seen two of the shows so far, and currently have tickets to a third show, if that tells you anything.

Now to the record itself. So much has been written on websites all over the internets since its digital release, that it's almost superfluous to do a review, but here it goes:

As the story goes, Eno had the basic tracks, sent them by email to Byrne, whose task was to add melodies and lyrics. "Strange Overtones" celebrates that process:

Your song still needs a chorus/I know you'll figure it out
The rising of the verses/A change of key will let you out

Eno was a de facto fifth member of Talking Heads on the group's second, third, and fourth albums. As the review taken from Rolling Stone above says, they also collaborated on "My life in the Bush of Ghosts", and on a couple of tracks from "The Catherine Wheel".

This record doesn't necessarily sound specifically like any one of those records, yet Byrne's inimitable signature is indelibly engraved on it, just as it is on all his post Talking Heads records.

Most of Byrne's solo records are pretty solid (granted, some more so than others), but "Everything" is probably the best post Talking Heads album he's done. Since it's a collaboration with Eno, it's often been compared to the three Talking Heads records and "Life in the Bush of Ghosts".

After having listened to "Everything" maybe a half dozen times, and hearing bits and pieces of Talking Heads era influences along with post Talking Heads influences, it finally dawned on me that the record it resembles most is not a Byrne/Eno or Talking Heads record, but instead the 1990 record Eno released with John Cale of Velvet Underground fame called "Wrong Way Up", so check that out. Byrne has described "Everything" as "electronic gospel". Both "Wrong Way Up" and "Everything.." do have a very uplifting sound, and would sound great in a church or cathedral.

The song "One fine day" was inspired by the book "What is the what", which is about a young Sudanese man who made an amazing journey to America and made a new life for himself.

As this historic election approached, Byrne began saying we could all make November 4 "One fine day" before he played the song live. Yes We Did, and the song stands as a beautiful example of many of Byrne's songs which are born with one meaning, and evolve into an entirely different meaning after their release.

"Everything" is already making its way to several "Best of 2008" lists. It's definitely high up on mine.

On "Everything", Byrne's voice is stronger than it's ever been, and the show is a real joy.

Great record.

Where did this come from?
David Byrne. Brian Eno. Together again. 'Strange Overtones' may be the best single of the year, period. It does sound like a mishmash of leftover 90's samples, but that's because it's what it is. It even references that fact in it's own lyrics. "This groove is out of fashion/These beats are 20 years old." Still, it's incredibly catchy, charming, poppy and intelligent and against all odds, sounds very fresh.

Everyone digs Byrne and the Talking Heads, but I never counted myself as a huge fan of his music, more of a fan of his label Luaka Bop. My vanilla attitude made this record that much sweeter in that it blindsided me. The album has lots of bizarre blips and pops, weird pacing, abstract lyrics... the whole thing is very unconventional, and in this time of everyone you've ever met releasing an album online, it's very strange to find something unique. Sure, it's got hints of Byrne, hints of Eno, some XTC, TLC, FYC, a heavy (intentional) dose of modern gospel, even some Michael Jackson-ish beats... but it's greater than the sum of its parts. It's difficult to describe what you're going to hear here, but it's almost impossible to listen to the album without a smile on your face.

And I love all the artwork. The cover. The liner notes. Reminds me of The Sims meets Sunny Day Real Estate's 'Diary'. Mundane and exciting at the same time.

Byrne + Eno + Electro-Folk-Gospel = 5 Star Album
Brian Eno has a long history of assisting and inspiring other artists to create some of their greatest works (U2, Coldplay, David Bowie, James, Paul Simon, John Cale, and, of course, The Talking Heads, all spring to mind), and his collaboration with David Byrne on EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS WILL HAPPEN TODAY is no exception.

In many ways, this is the freshest sounding and most directly impacting album of David Byrne's exceptional (and exceptionally overlooked) solo career. Eno describes his musical arrangements here as simple but inviting, and this is the perfect way to put it. The music is also lush, clever, and intoxicating, and it clearly inspired Byrne to deliver some of his most soulful and appealing performances ever.

Having heard the record a half-dozen times already (and having seen a show from the justly celebrated concert tour), I can safely say that I consider at least 8 out of the 11 songs a perfect 5 out of 5 stars. Only the last couple songs seem to lose some steam, although they are only pale in comparison to the great tracks that preceded them.

I definitely suggest checking out the song, "Strange Overtones" (which, according to another reviewer, is available free here on Amazon), which is one of the major stand-outs from the album. DB opens his concerts with this song, and it's the perfect way to introduce new listeners to the distinctive soundscape of ETHWHT.

Anyways, I was pretty annoyed and disappointed to see the tangle of rotten reviews for this record, and I have to wonder why such a great artist as David Byrne attracts so many embittered spammers. This isn't to say that every bad review is a spam, but most of the bad reviews here struck me as uninformed and truly uninspired nonsense. But you can be the judge about that, I guess.

Check this album out - it really is one of the best of '08, and probably David Byrne's (and Brian Eno's) best yet.